C. Dean Metropoulos, in suit, celebrated the comeback of Twinkies with workers at the plant in Schiller Park, Ill., in July 2013. A Hostess spokeswoman said that Mr. Metropoulos oversaw the refurbishing of the plant. But it was closed the following year. CreditScott Boehm/Associated Press
“Schiller Park, We ♥ You,” read a billboard that Hostess sponsored in the town, the heart carved into the image of a half-eaten Twinkie.
The celebration was short-lived. Just over a year after the plant’s grand reopening, Hostess shut it down.
The fallout was swift. All 415 employees were fired, some for the second time in two years. Schiller Park lost one of its largest employers, creating a ripple effect through this tiny working-class suburb of Chicago. The plant itself, an institution so old that it predated nearby O’Hare International Airport, was suddenly vacant.
